al-Nisāʾ 4:84-87

Fa-qātil fī sabīli'llāh, lā tukallafu illā nafsak, wa ḥarriḍi'l-muʾminīn · Man yashfaʿ shafāʿatan ḥasanatan yakun lahū naṣībun minhā, wa man yashfaʿ shafāʿatan sayyiʾatan yakun lahū kiflun minhā … · Wa idhā ḥuyyītum bi-taḥiyyatin fa-ḥayyū bi-aḥsana minhā aw ruddūhā, inna'llāha kāna ʿalā kulli shayʾin Ḥasībā

"Fight in the way of God; you are answerable only for yourself. And urge on those who believe… Whoever intercedes with a good intercession shall have a share of it; whoever intercedes with a bad intercession shall have a burden of it… When you are greeted with a greeting, answer with a finer one or return the same. God keeps count of all things."

The root ك-ل-ف: to take up a task with difficulty; and to lay a burden on someone. Kulfa — trouble.

And the function of the sentence must be recorded: immediately after a command, the scope of that command is narrowed.

Three clauses one after another, and the middle one separates the first from the third.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the order of the clauses: the verse lifts the burden of making others do what they ought and puts urging on in its place. This is the same as the qualification fa-mā arsalnāka ʿalayhim ḥafīẓā in the eightieth verse.

The concrete sense of the root: to make a thing double. Shafʿ — even, paired; watr — odd, single. So shafāʿa is the joining of a second party to the one who is alone.

And this concrete sense of the word explains the ruling the verse gives: the one who intercedes becomes the second party to the business — and for that reason takes a share of the outcome.

The verse gives the two returns with two separate words, and the difference must be recorded:

Kifl — root ك-ف-ل: to take a thing upon oneself, to stand surety; and the saddle-cloth put on a camel's back. The concrete sense of the word is a load.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the difference between the two words: for the good the verse chooses the word share, for the bad the word burden. Two separate names are given to the same structure.

And the word naṣīb occurs here for the sixth time in this sūra (twice in 7, twice in 32, 33, 85). The word's distribution in the sūra will be set out in a table in the concluding section.

The root ح-ي-ي: life. Taḥiyya — to wish life to someone; and from there, a greeting.

And the measure the verse gives must be recorded, because it has two steps:

The verse, that is, lays down a floor: one does not fall below the greeting received.

I record this as an observation about word order: the particle aw (or) in the sentence states an alternative, and both alternatives include answering. Leaving it unanswered is not among the options.

And the verse-ending must be recorded: inna'llāha kāna ʿalā kulli shayʾin Ḥasībā. This verse was included in the table of verse-endings set out in the sūra's introductory section. A keeper of reckoning is set beside a small act of conduct.